Tag Archives: Gallipoli

How Gallipoli brought a British soldier to New Zealand

Wairarapa Times Age reporter Steve Rendle interviewed Hugo Manson, one of our participants in The End of the War? and found out how his British father’s experience at Gallipoli influenced him into emigrating to New Zealand.

This is an excellent article about how Cecil saw the war — with great insight into his personal experiences and the way they shaped his life, and the lives of his family members.

Gallipoli holds a special place in the history of New Zealand. Masterton’s Hugo Manson heard first-hand from his father what it was like to be there.

“In effect, Gallipoli was his first job . . . and within an hour of his first job, the soldier next to him was shot dead.”

Masterton’s Hugo Manson is talking about his father – or, more accurately, his father’s experience of the World War I campaign regarded as a key part of nation-building for New Zealand.

But Cecil Manson wasn’t fighting with the Anzac troops – his British 2nd 4th Queens Surrey Regiment was operating over the hill from the New Zealanders and Australians on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

“But he met a lot of New Zealanders, and he was terribly impressed,” Hugo Manson recalls. “He thought they had an extremely free way of treating things and treating people.

The article also discusses Cecil’s contribution to the second world war, which Hugo, at the time, had understood was ‘administrative’. It wasn’t until years later, that Hugo discovered his father had been involved Bletchley Park, a British code-breaking center during the Second World War. Click here to see The Wairarapa Times Age article about Cecil’s Manson’s service and the effect it had on his family.

Enjoy our You Tube teaser of Hugo’s story.

An audio-visual exhibition, The End of The War? looks at the war-time experiences of nine people – men and women, Māori and Pākehā, Pasifika and Asian – and explores how the impact of their experiences has stretched through the generations, connecting these long-dead New Zealanders to their families 100 years on.

The End of the War? is created by Story Inc. and Dusk, and funded by the Lottery Grants Board. To see The End of the War? and book a guided tour of The Great War Exhibition or a Quinn’s Post Trench Experience, please click here.

The End of the War? our new exhibition, created by Story Inc. and Dusk, shows the effect of the First World War on New Zealanders, and features interviews with descendants of people who had a variety of roles in the war—soldiers, patriotic supporters, conscientious objectors, politicians and nurses.

Lois Wilson, Vic Singe and Felicity Siemmens are three of the descendants featured in the show.

Vic and Felicity are the grandchildren of Victor Sing, who was one of the four ‘fighting Sings’—New Zealand-Irish-Chinese brothers who fought at The Western Front and The Somme. The brothers, Herbert, Albert (known as Victor), Robert and Arthur, were all living in Grey Lynn when they enlisted.

Herbert was a signaller on telephone duty during a bombardment when the telephone wire was repeatedly broken. Each time, Herbert went out to repair the wire, under fire, to keep the lines of communication open. He was recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal for deeds of exceptional bravery.

During the production of the show, Vic and Felicity learned of a letter that Private Albert Sing wrote home about his brother Herbert’s death.

Private Albert Sing wrote, “It was only a few weeks previous… that Herbert made a name for himself in a strafe. He was on duty at the telephone when the wire was broken on three different occasions…. He was a great loss to us all and his comrades, for he had many, and was well liked. But it’s hard, Mother, to bear our loss bravely.”

Felicity Siemmens and Vic Singe outside The Great War Exhibition, which is currently screening The End of the War?, a show about the effects of the First World War on New Zealand families.

As Vic says in the show, “He was a ‘Fighting Sing’ till the end for sure, you know. And brave as, going out there and doing it.”

Many participants in The End of the War? mention the effects of the First World War on subsequent generations. Felicity explains, “They had help with their physical wounds, but their psychological wounds really remained. And remained, perhaps, down through the generations.”

The show gave Vic and Felicity the experience of seeing their relatives honoured, and having their story acknowledged in a public space.

Felicity says, “Story Inc has provided our family with a unique opportunity to remember a grandfather and an uncle in a very special way. Albert and Herbert are now being remembered and honoured. It was an honour to pay tribute to an uncle we never knew in the flesh. Pretty amazing … information has come to light in this WW1 Exhibition and shone a spotlight on the past.”

Lois Wilson is the niece-in-law of Louisa Higginson who served as a nurse in the First World War. Lois recently visited to see the show. It was quite an emotional experience for her.

Lois says, “Louisa was given the position of being in charge of a prisoner of war camp and they were German prisoners.”

Louisa wrote home, “I feel so disgusted and ashamed to think I have to nurse the Huns. This is what I paid my fare and came 16,000 miles for. It is a beautiful place and should be used for our boys.”

Lois commented, “But she would do her duty. And she did.”

Lois Wilson and her daughter Glenys. Lois is the great niece of Louisa Higginson, who served as a nurse in the First World War. Hugo Manson is pictured behind them, right, holding a photo of his father Cecil who served in Gallipoli.

Nowadays, attitudes to war are different. “With the stories we heard, we just wondered why they went. I often think, even now, I doubt that the males of the country would think of going to war now,” Lois says in The End of the War?

Kate Manson, the script writer for Story Inc, whose father Hugo Manson and grandfather Cecil Manson (who served at Gallipoli) feature in the show, says being involved in writing the scripts and seeing the final product was an emotional experience. “There was a real connection with their families, discovering their ancestors and their stories and acknowledging what they did.”

The End of the War? is showing at The Great War Exhibition until doors close to the public at 6pm on December 2nd 2018. Book your guided tour or Trench Experience here.

Dan King, the project manager and art director behind The Quinn’s Post Trench Experience, spent 18 months on the job, ensuring The Trench was as authentic as possible, so visitors are able to experience what it was like to be in the dangerous trenches of Gallipoli in 1915.

Dan, a Carterton resident, talks to reporter Steve Rendle of the Wairarapa Times Age about his experiences, which involved shooting machine guns, weighing wet plaster (to conform to the building’s weight restrictions) and working with Sir Peter Jackson, whose attention to detail enabled the crew to “make this the closest thing to being there.”

For more about this exciting view behind the Quinn’s Post Trench Experience, see the full news article here.

The Quinn’s Post Trench Experience officially opened in mid April and we’ve been swept off our feet with visitors keen to experience the sights, sounds and noises of the trenches in Gallipoli (courtesy of Sir Peter Jackson and his creative team at WingNut).

Now that we have a moment to catch our breath, we’d like to share some of our photos and media coverage of The Trench.

Governor General, The Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy with Sir Peter JacksonChairperson of the National Military Heritage Trust, Dame Fran Wilde, with The Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy and Trustee Richard Austin.His Worship Mayor Justin Lester with General Manager of The Great War Exhibition, Dave Clearwater.Inside The Trench with actors Jed Brophy and Mark Hadlow, who sometimes undertook 21-hour shoots to capture the footage for The Quinn’s Post Trench Experience. The ‘ghost’ of Lt. Colonel Malone is commanding his troops in the background.Mark and Jed explore The Trench.Mark Mitchell of the New Zealand Herald captures footage in the close confines of The Trench.

Actors Jed Brophy and Darren Young join actor and photographer Dean O’Gorman, who has staged realistic new photographs of Passchendaele for his new exhibition Passchendaele – The Elusive Familiarity of War. This exhibition was installed on the day The Trench opened. For more info see this page.